Iron Man debut comic sells for $375,000

David Konow, 3rd May 2012

DC Comics experienced a big turn around last year when the company essentially reinvented itself and actually managed to outpace Marvel in sales.

While The Dark Knight is absolutely going to be a huge movie this summer, I think it’s safe to say it’s really going to be Marvel’s year with The Avengers, which is on track to be an enormous hit this summer, possibly the biggest.

So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Marvel comic sales have been going through the roof in anticipation of The Avengers, but in this case it’s the sales of the original vintage issues that have gone up, as we’re (hopefully) coming out a recession no less, and prices for originals are insane as usual.

So now The Hollywood Reporter tells us Tales of Suspense #39, which was the first issue that featured Iron Man, just sold for $375,000, and this makes Iron Man’s debut the second most valuable comic of the "Silver Age" behind Amazing Fantasy #15, where Spider-Man made his debut.

Last year a copy of that went for $1.1 million. Clearly, the success of the recent comic films have been spiking the market.

Other recent sales with huge prices include Journey Into Mystery #83, which featured the debut of Thor, a copy of which sold for $222,200 in February. Last August, a copy of the first Captain America sold for $343,000, while the first issue of The Avengers sold last November for $250,000, where its previous record was $100,000.

The Reporter also tells us that if you want a collection of vintage Avengers like this, it could set you back $1.3 million, and it's certain to go higher once The Avengers makes three trillion dollars at the box office.

Vintage comics have been in the news a lot lately, and as we’ve reported on TG Nicholas Cage’s first issue of Superman was recovered from a theft and sold for big money at auction, $2.1 million in fact, and the story of said comic’s theft is actually going to be made into a comedy, Action No. 1, in reference to the first issue of Action Comics where Superman made his debut.